Coin Prices

Hi;

Newbie here.  I find I've been using the Numista site more and more every month.  I've collected world coins since 1974 (US since 1957) and collect them all.  

I'm trying to sell a bunch of modern circulating coinage in BU or Gem.   Prices in Numista tend to either be right on the money or a tiny fraction of what they are trading for on eBay.   I'm wondering about peoples'  thoughts on this.  Are the eBay prices real?   Do most of the coins have to be shipped overseas to get full value?  I know a lot of these are rare based on the difficulty of obtaining them but Krause would show prices soaring one year and collapsing the next.  

Of course this also applies to some older base metal and silver coins as well.  

How does one price moderns and rarely traded coins?  

Welcome to Numista!

Hard to respond to your question without specific examples.

For eBay, I am always careful to look at sold items prices.  If I find multiple items selling at similar prices, then you know the market value of your coin in your eBay market.  

For less commonly sold (and higher value) coins, auction results are a good indicator.  But again, national markets may differ.  If a coin is selling higher in European auctions, but lower on U.S. eBay, you need to decide which market you are selling to.

Welcome to Numista!

“Are the eBay prices real?” - if they are sold at some point to someone then yes, they are real. But they can differ quite a bit. I always like to get coins at auctions at good prices.

I very often use Numista values as well, for a lot of coins I think they are very fair, but not for all, of course. I look at Numista's values quite often and try to get the coins at a cheaper price unless I know that a particular coin is undervalued at Numista.

I rarely use catalog prices like Krause, I feel like most prices are so much higher and nobody buys them at those values. So, sometimes their values are ridiculously low, and nobody sells at those prices.

So, it all depends. It is better also to sell more common coins in lots because the processing fees and shipping just make the transactions to high. People will not buy them.

I hope it helps a bit.